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Baghdad oil refinery ablaze after rocket attack (?)
BAGHDAD - Firefighters were on Monday battling a blaze at a south Baghdad oil refinery sparked by a rocket attack, a statement from the Iraqi government said. ‘Four rockets hit the benzine pipeline’ in southern Baghdad’s Dora refinery, the government said, adding, ‘the damage from this terrorist attack is still unclear.’

Oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said a Katyusha-type rocket is believed to have caused the inferno. ‘A rocket thought to be of the Katyusha type struck a light fuel tank at the refinery, causing fire and material damage,’ Jihad told AFP. ‘There were no casualties.

‘The fire is still burning but the situation is under control,’ he said mid-afternoon. ‘The extinguishing operation is still continuing. I cannot say when will it be put out, but the tank is isolated and we are waiting for the remaining fuel to finish burning.’
But it may not have been a rocket:
The US military, however, disputed that the blaze was caused by rockets and put it down to an ‘industrial accident.’ ‘Baghdad forces determined that the cause of a fire at the Dora oil refinery today was the result of an industrial accident,’ a military statement said. ‘The fire which began around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) was initially believed to have been started by indirect fire’ but when troops arrived on the scene ‘its cause was determined to be the result of a pipe explosion,’ the statement said.

It said the security forces arrived at the site within minutes and began to control the blaze. ‘The exact number of casualties is unknown at this time,’ the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-12-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=212561